Plan ahead to beat the New Year's booze blues

THE morning after the night before is rarely a pretty picture but when that night is New Year's Eve, the aftermath can be particularly ugly.

Of course, the dreaded January 1 hangover can be avoided completely by drinking in moderation or abstaining altogether but let's be realistic: for hundreds of thousands of revellers, it's one date on the calendar where all the sensible drinking messages in the world won't make a nip of difference.

The best bet? Plan ahead and take measures to banish that headache faster than you can break a new year resolution.

A good place to start, says National Drug Research Institute director Professor Steve Allsop, is understanding what causes hangovers in the first place.

Drinking too much is the short answer but there are lots of other factors at play that influence just how sore that achy-breaky head will feel the next morning.

What's your best hangover cure? (Note: 'Don't drink in the first place' is not acceptable!) Tell us below

"When you drink alcohol your liver metabolises it into a substance called acetaldehyde, which is highly toxic," Prof Allsop said.

"So (when) you drink a lot of alcohol, you're going to wake up with acetaldehyde in your system and that's why you feel nauseous, you've got a headache and you might have palpitations."

The trick, Prof Allsop said, was not just to intersperse alcohol with non-alcoholic drinks but also to prepare your body by drinking plenty of water first.

Peak blood-alcohol levels also play a part in how you'll feel the next day, so throwing back drinks hard and fast is not a good idea.

"Drinking less, slowing your rate of drinking, only drinking with food in your stomach - all of those will lower your peak blood-alcohol level and contribute to a less severe hangover," he said.

Prof Allsop said alcohol was a sedative but large amounts of it prevented REM cycles essential for a restful night's sleep, adding to that seedy feeling in the morning.

The colour of your cocktail could also play a part.

Within darker-hued drinks such as red wine and whisky lurk higher concentrations of congeners, byproducts of fermentation believed to exacerbate hangover symptoms in some people.

Prof Allsop said the best treatments for hangovers were simple: rest, water and easily digestible snacks like avocados or bananas.

"Basically, the easiest way to reduce a hangover is to drink less," Prof Allsop said.

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